Round Table
It was particularly with Punk, but also with Techno and its many mutations that small labels, independent shops and zines have historically played a decisive role in creating networks to bypass and counter the mainstream corporate world. These possibilities of autonomy have been undermined since the ruling class unleashed their mad dog, Jeff Bezos, onto the innocent populous. Cannibalism and same-day delivery overshadow our everyday existence, as does the dim green glow of hours upon hours of suggested playlists. Is there a back door out of this madness?

Dan Moss
A director and screenwriter, his first foray into film was a 50-minute documentary for BBC2 in 1992, when he was 13. He has since written, directed and produced one feature film and seven short films, along with a variety of music videos and online content. He has shot in locations across the world, including India, Italy and Uganda. He will show a number of shorts.

Dasa Raimanova
Dasa Raimanova, originally from Slovakia, is a freelance filmmaker, currently on a six months work placement at Deutsche Welle (DW) in Berlin.
Her documentary work explores socio-political topics, generally focussing on the stories of strong women. Dasa released her feature debut POLYLAND in 2017. She will be showing two short films.

Endless War
A leaked classified US government document published by The Intercept gives more precise numbers about people placed on various ‘terrorism’ suspect databases as of August 2013. The Terrorism Screening Database (TSDB) has 680,000 ‘known or suspected terrorists’, with 40% or 280,000 labeled as having ‘no recognized terrorist group affiliation’. An additional 320,000 are in Terrorism Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE). This unclassified information is based on ‘reasonable suspicion’ (not facts or evidence), and is routinely shared to intelligence, military, local police, foreign governments and private companies. The second highest concentration of ‘known or suspected terrorists’ is in Dearborn, Michigan, a city with the largest percentage of Arab-Americans, which makes the racial profiling practices of the databases clear. There are 240 nominations a day to TIDE. The no-fly list contains 47,000 people; 16,000 more people are ‘selectees’ given addition airport screening. TIDE includes more than 860,000 biometric files (face scans, fingerprints, iris scans) on 144,000 people. The Intercept also published the leaked March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance document which details the secret procedures that 19 government agencies use to put people on these various databases.

Rahinah Ibrahim is the first person to successfully challenge her placement on the government no-fly list. The federal court judge ruled that she was not a ‘threat’ to national security and had been placed on the no-fly list because of a bureaucratic ‘mistake’ when the FBI official, Kevin Kelley, filled out the form wrong by checking the ‘wrong boxes’. Her name has to be purged from the list, or the government has to certify her name is already removed. Four American Muslims have filed a lawsuit in which they accuse the FBI of putting them on the no-fly list in order to either intimidate them into becoming informants or retaliating against them for refusing. In another American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit on behalf of 13 US citizens, a federal judge struck down as unconstitutional the procedures people on the list must use to contest their inclusion. The government must create a new remedy process, but the judge did not in any way stop the implementation of the no-fly list.

In April 2014, publicintelligence.net made public a 2011 US Army Commander’s Guide to Biometrics in Afghanistan, which thoroughly details the government’s goal to collect biometric data (facial photos, iris scans, and all ten fingerprints) from every person in Afghanistan. The biopolitical war project includes not only attempting to ID ‘terrorists’ by running the biometrics through Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FBI databases, but also the management of entire populations. [Read more →]